Modern data centers are advantageously managed using system management software or software asset management systems. These may need comprehensive data about installed software of the computing systems under control. However, there may be circumstances that lead to a mismatch between software products that may be registered in a software catalog, e.g. a registry, and software that is actually installed and used on a given computing system or peripheral device. In order to properly manage the computing systems, due to compliance rules, and in order to manage user licenses according to contractual requirements, it may be required to have a clear view about supposedly installed software and actually installed software on a given computing system and/or a data center landscape.
Several approaches have been used and some experimentation goes on to map discovered software to tracked software in software catalogues. None of these methods and systems are perfect or guarantee a 100% recognition in either way: discovered software versus. registered software or registered software versus discovered software. There are always mismatches that require a labor intensive manual compare and match process.